Digital transformation. What does that phrase even mean? A quick search on Google will return a never-ending stream of definitions and explanations, each dancing around a concept that has swept over our industries. Some call it the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”; the newest wave of innovation that will enable our society to proliferate beyond the barriers of yesterday. Others take a more simplistic approach, calling it an improvement of business process with technology. No matter how you define it, the impacts are inescapable.
Like The Jetsons and their utopian, futuristic society, technology companies are working hard to create a world in which innovation makes the world a better place. A place where manual and mundane processes can be stripped away and automated by artificial intelligence, giving human operators an opportunity to engage in purpose driven work. Something that everyone aspires to have in their lives, and something we’ve seen evolve over the last century.
At the turn of the twentieth century, work was viewed as a necessity, an act that was performed to provide sustenance and put food on the table. As our industries shifted throughout the 1940’s and 50’s, the middle class was solidified and the mentality towards work turned from necessity to prosperity. Thanks to technological innovations of the era, the burden of life sustaining activities was lifted from the daily worker, allowing them to focus on their career and accumulate wealth. Consequently, this freed up time for thinking. As we reflect upon the last two decades, we can see the result of this thinking. Through thought, innovation came – ultimately propelling the mentality of the modern workforce beyond prosperity into purpose.
For many leaders, this is the deeper – often missed – definition of “digital transformation”. It’s about having a purpose driven organization and the adoption of technology is the mode in which this is achieved. For industries like insurance and finance, which lag in the adoption of digital transformation, there is a significant opportunity to revolutionize the ways in which these organizations become purpose driven. Throughout this article, we are going to unpack a series of questions that will help better understand this potential and what it means for the future of the insurance industry…
